07 November, 2012

A customer came in the other day and mentioned how he
cleaned up his 30+ year old handlebars to the point of looking like new just
with aluminum foil and water. So in the spirit of Arts and Crafts, I had to give it a try. Conveniently, there
was a pie plate kicking around from when Heidi rebuilt her son’s bike. Here goes nothing.

Before, notice the lovely rust spots:

Take some aluminum foil, in my case from breakfast; dampen the item and
foil with water and take some aggression out on it. The water will start to turn a bit black; just wipe away as you go.

Clean up with a fresh paper towel or cloth. Looks great already, only after a few minutes of work.

After:

Surface rust is gone, the Simichrome gave it a nice shine, and only took 5 minutes. This trick is on par with learning that your windows will be streak free if you use newspapers rather than paper towels.

Do any of you have other bike restoration tricks that we should know about?

18 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Bronze wool by hand or brass brushes on a Dremel tool...works on chrome really well. Use with polish during and after, just don't go crazy with the speed/pressure on the Dremel tool. Bronze wool can be purchased on-line or at specialty boating stores.

i am thinking if the 30yr old handlebars have seen a fair amount of usage or their history of usage is unknown that rather than be concerned how shiny they are that i would replace them,along with the stem..........

Impressive results with the foil and Simichrome! But now, on the subject of handlebar safety: I have two pairs of VO Tourist bars, and I love them. But they're aluminum and therefore they aren't as strong as, say, chromoly bars from Nitto, right? So . . . after how many miles or years of use should I consider retiring my Tourist bars? Also, are there any signs of fatigue that I should watch for?

On my own bikes I generally don't worry about city bars since there is not much weight on them. I'll replace road bars after about 10 years if the bike is one that gets ridden a lot. More often on MTBs. But there is no real science behind this schedule; it's just a guess.

VO bars are tested at the factory and we use fairly thick wall tubing. I've never seen one break.

Nitto recommends replacing aluminum bars every 10 years. Aluminum ages, ridden or not. If an aluminum bar flexes enough while riding to fatigue due to flex, it is highly flexible and probably more or less unrideable. Old aluminum bars should be carefully inspected for nicks, scratches, dents, all of which can lead to a nasty failure.

I manage a very busy bike shop in the center of a campus where we service hundreds of old bikes that students bring from their parent's/ grandparent's garages. I've also worked on bikes extensively since the late '70s as well as riding daily and can only recall one non-carbon (aluminum) handlebar that I've seen completely broken (seen many bent of course). I've heard many more stories of the "death stems" of yore and routinely warn students when they come in w/ them, but I seriously don't feel that aluminum bars need to be replaced due to potential catastrophic failure. Unless you've bent one badly then yes, replace it as aluminum doesn't like to bend twice without fracturing or greatly increasing the chance of it.

As for the aluminum foil, what advantage is there over fine steel wool other than you would't use it on nicely polished aluminum parts?

TPotter, I agree. You probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning than having your bars break.

Johnson, Aluminum does not lose strength just from sitting indoors. This topic comes up a lot with sailboat masts, something I know a bit about. Barring damage from corrosion or accident they last 50 years or longer (and are subject to a lot more punishment than handlebars).

Aluminum foil and water work great by themselves. I've been using that method for years on my chrome. No need for any products or polishes. As far as I know, the aluminum ions fill in pits and thereby temporarily "rust proof" the chrome while the water washes away the surface rust. Wipe dry and it's almost like new. I live in a salty, seaside climate and I only have to treat pitting in this manner about once every two years.

Also, why the hell would you replace steel handlebars just because they're 30 years old? I ride the crap out of my 40 year-old Raleigh three speed with original north road bars every day without any problems.

Mother's Aluminum and mag wheel polish is great on aluminum, obviously, but it's a little blingy for some applications. If you want a shiny yet slightly matte surface, apply with 000 steel wool.

Works great for cleaning the grime off white brake hoods, too. Leaves a nice supple surface, even on old MAFAC half-hoods. This goes away in a couple weeks, but Mother's is cheap and it only takes a little.

I do a bit of bike restoration for my own fun as well as volunteering at a local bike recycling shop. I use Bar Keeper's Friend for gently and easily removing surface rust from chrome. You can make a paste with it, dab it on with a rag, wait a little while (or overnight), and wipe it off. Or, for the less patient, add a little elbow grease and treat it like a polish. You'll have results right away. Here's an example: http://deathbike.net/2010/03/09/bike-keepers-friend/